United States CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of causing a popular uprising in Iran,
Multiple sources familiar with the plan according to CNN, said Trump administration has been in serious discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish leaders in Iraq about providing them with military support.
Over the years, Kurdish rebels have opposed Iran and carried out numerous attacks in Iran’s Kurdistan province as well as other western provinces.
They operate along the Iraq-Iran border, with Iran and Iraq’s Kurdish minorities sharing close ties.
The CIA has a history of working with Kurdish groups in neighbouring Iraq, which the US invaded in 2003.
It is also on record that Washington funded, armed and trained Kurdish fighters in Syria against former President Bashar al-Assad.
The CIA has funded rebels and armed groups in numerous countries over the past several decades to destabilise governments critical of US foreign policy.
Amid the ongoing war, and as Iran hits US assets and personnel hosted in neighbouring Gulf countries, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has also targeted Kurdish positions in the west.
“Instinctively, it feels like a bad move,” analyst Neil Quillian of the United Kingdom-based think tank Chatham House told Al Jazeera of the plan, warning that it might cause more internal conflict in Iran.
“It is an afterthought and has not featured in any major planning to support any broader endgame. It reveals that the US-Iran war against Iran has been poorly thought out,” he said.
